Sponsored by Woolworths
The weather in Melbourne has been positively bonkers this month. I’ve been wearing tights in the morning and stripping them off in my office bathroom at lunchtime when it gets unbearably hot in the middle of the day and then I usually have to put them back on to walk home because it gets cold again. I actually don’t love summer (I know. I’m a freak.) but I am starting to look forward to picnics, BBQs, salads, balmy evenings and long afternoons drinking beer with my mates, so it’s the perfect time to start planning summer menus and my lord do I love to plan!
Last week I flew to Sydney to have a meeting with the lovely team at Woolworths where I ate my body weight in beef and quietly slipped into a meat coma on the plane on the way home and had one of the best naps of my life. I’m super stoked to tell you guys that I’ve signed on with them as an ambassador for another year. You might remember last year I worked with Woolworths on their Macro range with healthy lunch box ideas, cheeky Christmas treats and quick breakfasts. This year I’m working on their Created With Jamie range (Bosh bosh! Lovely jubbly!) which is exclusive to Woolies (for more info visit their Facebook page) and I’ll be doing lots of quick dinner recipes and speedy entertainment ideas over the next 12 months. I do love a good dinner party.
So to kick off the launch of the summer range I’ve created an easy menu plan with some summer BBQ recipe ideas if you’re running short of time but still want to do something a little bit special. I call it Faux Fancy – like making gourmet burgers with pre-made hamburger patties or baking a packet mix cake and serving it with home made butter cream frosting. I’ve planned an entree, main and dessert and all of it is super quick prepare. Make sure you book mark this post for summer! I’ve planned an entree, main and dessert and all of it is super quick prepare. Make sure you book mark this post for summer!
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup of milk
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup gluten free self raising flour
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
- 20 grams melted butter
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped dill
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped chives
- 200 gms creme fraiche
- 50 gms miniature capers
- Created with Jamie Orange and Black Pepper Smoked Salmon - $69.90 per kilo around $6 per pack
- Whisk milk and egg together with a fork. Sift flour and baking into a bowl and add the sugar. Make a well in the centre, add the milk mixture and stir until well combined. Stir in butter and dill and season with salt pepper. Cover and stand for 20 minutes.
- Heat a non-stick frying pan to medium. Add teaspoons of batter to the pan to make small round blinis. Cook until bubbles appear on surface, turn and cook for a further 30 seconds. Leave to cool.
- Serve topped with creme faiche, chives, smoked salmon and capers... and if you're really running short of time you can just add some chopped up dill to a shake and pour packet pancake mix. Easy!
- 1 pack of Created with Jamie Vietnamese Style Half Chicken - $12.15 per kilo around $12 per pack
- 100gm packet of vermicelli noodles
- ¼ cup of coriander leaves
- ¼ cup of mint leaves
- 1 large red chilli finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 large carrot finely sliced
- A handful of snow peas sliced diagonally
- Prepare chicken according to instructions on packet. Note: Chicken takes about an hour to cook so make sure you leave enough time.
- Place noodles in a bowl and cover with boiling water for 2 minutes until soft and roughly chop with scissors
- Combine noodle, carrot, snow peas, mint and coriander in a bowl
- Combine soy, fish sauce, brown sugar and chilli and pour over salad
- Serve with chicken on a plate
- Created with Jamie Apple and Berry or Peach, Strawberry and Apricot Crumble - $7 per pack (I used the berry one in this recipe because the peach one was sold out!)
- Greek yogurt
- Rosewater
- Pistachios
- Fresh strawberries
- Heat the crumble according to the interactions on the box.
- Mix a small splash of rosewater with a cup of greek yogurt and mix well.
- Serve crumble with rosewater yogurt, a sprinkle of pistachios and fresh strawberries.
The verdict? Bloody delicious. Mr Smaggle loved the chicken so much he keeps sneaking it into the trolley whenever we’re doing the shopping. We both work from home most evenings so we don’t have to time to mess around with making fancy meals but I have to keep reminding him that we can’t have chicken every single night no matter how crispy and delicious it is.
The salmon is also divine (we ate 40 blinis between four us and didn’t even get blini regret) and I’m on a mission to find gluten free oats (any suggestions on where to get them in Australia? I know they exist!) so I can recreate the crumble for Mr Smags. The prods in this range are actually awesome. Pre-packaged food sometimes has an underlying copper taste to me (does anyone else get that? Or should I be a seeing a doctor?) but because all this stuff is fresh, it tastes like very yummy food and not metal which is obviously super comforting.
They also have simple flavours that you can easily pair with other dishes to make your dinners that little bit fancier. It’s those little short cuts that can allow you to have a beer with your guests as they arrive rather than tearing your hair out in the kitchen trying to perfectly julienne a carrot before your mini quails burn in the oven. Ain’t no one got time for that.
[divider type=”standard” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]
What’s your favourite simple summer dinner recipe? Any old faithfuls you can share?
Note: The Created with Jamie salmon and chicken are both gluten free (according to the ingredients) but the crumbles have oats so they’re not gluten free. Mr Smaggle reluctantly couldn’t eat the crumble. I did though and it was bloody tasty!
[divider type=”standard” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]